Nokia OZO VR camera now available in the US and Canada to buy or rent

If VR peaks your interest then you probably remember the OZO camera, announced last year by Nokia. Despite its long leave of absence from the smartphone scene, the Finnish giant is still innovating at full speed, as evident by the spherical device that came straight from the company’s R&D department in Tampere.

The professional-grade VR camera has been available for purchase straight from Nokia’s website, but with a eye-watering price tag of $60,000, we can’t image it has been enjoying too much popularity. To try and address this, Nokia has now officially announced the names of three resellers of the OZO in Canada and the US – AbelCine, Off Hollywood and Radiant Images.

In addition to being able to pick one up from a more convenient location, all three companies are also offering the Nokia OZO for rent. This does sound like a better monetizing strategy for the still very niche technology.

Nokia OZO is the world’s first VR camera designed for professionals. What this means is that it can be integrated easily into most industry work flows and even help in reducing overhead and production time. A key part in the process is the device’s ability for real-time 3D viewing, eliminating the resource-consuming process of creating a panoramic image prior to playback.

The Nokia OZO boasts a total of eight lenses, each in front of a 2K x 2K sensor. Those cover a 360° x 180° viewing angle and produce a 3D image at 30fps with a 10 stop dynamic range and base sensitivity of ISO 400. There are eight mics to capture multi-directional sound too with 64dB S/N and 120dB max SPL.

The target audience for the content, created on the OZO, are head-mounted displays or any other form of VR viewing hardware available on the market.